Buy a book today, and help a student in the future.
By purchasing a book from the third annual Usborne Book Fair at Saint Mary's college, students, faculty, staff and community members can give back to the community in an indirect way. All proceeds from the books purchased benefit the Learning Tree ¾ an educational resource center on campus.
"We will get 50 percent of all profits from the Fair to use towards the purchase of new books for the Learning Tree," Director of the Learning Tree Jayne Fogle said. "For example, if the Book Fair makes $100, I will get to select $50 worth of free books from Usborne. It's a wonderful opportunity and we really appreciate people's help with this."
Once the Tree acquires the free books, they are added to its library.
"The Learning Tree's library has received over hundreds of books through Usborne," Fogle said. "It's been a nice thing to have each year."
Fogle said education majors devising units and lesson plans for their student teachings are the primary users of the library books. However, faculty and students from all areas of study are able to check the books out.
"These books are not solely for education majors," Fogle said. "They don't have to be used just in the classroom. We have a lot of multicultural books, too. Anyone from Saint Mary's can check out a book and use them for homework, presentations or other projects."
By purchasing a book, however, customers benefit, too. The books included in the fair cover a variety of genres suited for preschool all the way to the high school level.
"These books are better quality [than most other books]," she said. "There will be some history, science, cookbooks and activity books. We have a lot of neat art books, too. There are some really fun books for sale."
Prices range from $5 to $20, plus tax.
While the books are diverse and fairly affordable, Fogle said her primary goal for the Fair is to provide a fun outlet for the community to purchase Christmas gifts.
"When I first asked [an Usborne representative] about doing a fundraiser at Saint Mary's, I was trying to think of fun things that people could do for Christmas gifts," she said.
Fogle said she expects the event to be an enjoyable one this year because of the Fair's success in the past.
"A lot of people look forward to it every year. I have gotten emails saying people are excited to come back and buy some new books."
Customers can purchase books at the Fair until 4 p.m. today.
